Golden Plains pushes to increase base rate

CHANGES are proposed to Golden Plains Shire’s rating system in a bid to even out financial burden.

The rural council is proposing increasing the base rate paid by every household by $75 so that less of each household’s rates payment is subject to variations of the house valuation.

It comes after the council last year committed to changing its rating system.

Council officers wrote that rate increases would be based on new valuations, with rate increases carrying across the differential rating categories and individual properties.

“There can be a misunderstanding that as properties are revalued, council receives additional revenue,” officers wrote.

“However, this is not the case, but instead the total revenue is redistributed across all properties in the shire.

“Total income from rates can only be increased by the 2.5 per cent rate cap. As such, as property values increase, the rate in the dollar will decrease.”

Increasing the revenue raised from the fixed municipal charge from $225 to $300 per property is being proposed.

Golden Plains mayor Owen Sharkey said the change was “designed to best manage the growing disparity between the ever increasing property values in a number of our towns and those towns where property values may even be declining, the use of the municipal charge helps to share the costs more evenly throughout the Shire.”

He added: “With rate-capping locked in, Council cannot and will not receive any more rate money by doing this — the change will just redistribute the total rates revenue among the residents of Golden Plains.”

Cr Sharkey said it would mean less of every household’s rates payment were subject to variations of the house valuation. The council will tonight vote whether to place the 2019-20 draft budget on public exhibition.